BOOK TASTING!

This year was the first year that I had a Book Tasting and it was lots of fun. 

What is a Book Tasting?

Well, first off let me tell you that you do not need to bake anything! It is just a fun way to expose students to different genres and books that they may not usually pick up to read. I tell them that when they taste a meal they do not eat the whole thing. They just get a bite. During the book tasting they are not going to read the whole book. They will just read a bite or piece of it. 

Students came to the media center during their specials time and we had books from different genres on each table. Students stayed at each table for about 10 minutes. They read one of the books for 5 minutes and then had 5 minutes to fill out part of the "menu" to tell about their first impressions of the book and to rate the book out of 5 stars. I then had students switch tables and read from a different genre. 

 

My para and I wore a chef hat and a red apron. We decorated the tables with red and white table cloths and silver platters in the middle for the books to sit in. I was able to order all of these things on amazon. The tablecloths were large rectangles and I cut them in half to used one table cloth on two square tables.

I make lots of products for TeachersPayTeachers, but sometimes you don't need to because someone else has created something wonderful. I used https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Book-Tasting-Introduce-Your-Students-to-New-Books-2741616 by Head over Heals for Teaching. I used this product for my 3rd-5th grade students and it was such a time saver.

The main thing I really had to plan and make something for was Kindergarten-2nd grade, because I am one of those media specialists on the specials schedule and I see K-5 all in one day. If I am going to dress up and decorate the media center with table cloths, silver platters, and menus, then we are ALL going to enjoy this book tasting! Not to mention, students would have been super sad to come to the media center after seeing it like this during the week and not get to participate. In reality, the main purpose of the Book Tasting is to get student attention and to get them excited about reading. I feel that I definitely accomplished this main goal.

So, for K-2, I put different stacks of books on each table (it was just a general variety not organized by genre) and they rotated from table to table and I made a simple sheet where students could draw a quick picture and write about whether of not they like the book or their favorite part of the book  after reading/looking at the books on each table. They are also able to rate their impression of the book out of 5 stars, which they really enjoyed this concept. I always try to explain this by saying a really good restaurant is called a 5 star restaurant. 

I wish I had take more pictures. Well, there's always next year!

The super simple sheet I made for K-2 can be found for FREE in my TPT Store.

BOOK TASTING RESPONSE SHEET

 

GaETC notes from the past 2 years!

I created and shared smore flyers with notes from GaETC from 2018 and 2019. I've included the flyers below for you enjoyment. This is the perfect time to refresh yourself on technology resources. 

The 2018 smore flyer highlights:

- lots of wonderful people to follow on twitter

- music websites

- photos/clip art/icons that are public domain (copyright free)

- helpful hints for google slides, google drawing, and google slides

- graphic organizers for google drawing

- a coding game

- background noise cancellation

- geography websites

- history and augmented reality

- fun art websites

The 2019 smore flyer highlights:

- lots of graphic design stuff

- bookstagramming

- lots of info about google

- learning activities in google drawing

- youtube tips

- stop motion animation GIF

- sketchnoting

I'm Back!

I’m back! I am ready to start blogging again. I basically took a two year break and I have lots of things to share. 

I had a hard time deciding where to start, but I’ve decided to start by sharing that I plan to rebrand myself as Casey Crumbley (my actual name) instead of CasedillaCrumbs in the Classroom, so bare with me while I work all of that out. 

TPT Store https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Casey-Crumbley

Instagram @casey.crumbley

Twitter @casey_crumbley

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CaseyCrumbleyTPT

I am also working on updating product covers to be squares instead of rectangles...this is going to be a huge undertaking, but I think it will be worth it in the end. 

Here’s one product I updated today:

BEFORE

AFTER

A Little Bit of Everything to End the School Year!

I'm just going to share a little bit of everything that shows how my school year ended. 

One of my favorite Co-Teach with Technology sessions was going into kindergarten and first grade classroom to read a story and then having students retell the story using sock puppets. This month I read Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion. 

Relay for Life

Our art teacher made a beautiful banner for us to use for Relay for Life and we had a great time at this wonderful event that raises money for the American Cancer Society

The Pay Day song gave us a hint to our Teacher Appreciation Week destination.

For Teacher Appreciation Week, our principal planned a New York theme and took us to "New York". We were given lunch each day of the week based around this theme: hot dogs, little Italy, pizza, etc. and one morning they gave us the best apple fritter that I have ever had in my entire life! 

The best part of this is that he also took us to a Braves game against the NY Mets and we won in the last inning. It was a walk-off home run. We all went to eat at the Varsity on the way to the game as well. 

This is the most thoughtful note that was given to me during Teacher Appreciation Week and made me laugh out loud. This particular student only gets on my nerves when she asks me for a book recommendation, but then will not read it if the pages look too "old".  Love her!

I was able to get class sets of Lightning Thief,  Matilda and Hatchet through DonorsChoose. After Spring Break, when classes visited me I had them listen to this books being read aloud while they followed along in the book. We've not done this before in the media center and they absolutely loved it. 

In case you did not know, these are the best youtube storytellers in my opinion. They are so funny and often have the authors in their videos as well.  Ryan and Craig Storytime

I started using these "If You Like, Then You May Like" signs to help students find additional books that they are interested in.

I always try to plan something for of school-wide end of the year assembly. This year I worked with the music teacher. She helped teach the students the song, A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman track. I had students draw pictures of things that they wished the world was full of and made the pictures into an iMovie. While I played the iMovie on the screen she had the entire school singing the song. It was magical and a great way to end the school year. 

Co-Teach with Technology Reflection and Goals for Next Year!

I just wanted to quickly post about the Web 2.0 tools that I helped teachers learn about and utilize this year during my monthly co-teach with technology sessions. The topics listed below are resources and websites I offered to help with this school year.

These are some sessions that I already know I'd like to offer for next school year.

Books You Should Read!

Have I told you before how amazing Goodreads is? Goodreads is the best for making a year long reading goal, finding books similar to the books you enjoy or make recommendations for your friends and see which books they are reading. You are also able to rate books once you've read them.

I just started reading her books this year and I now want to read every single one of her books and want her to never stop writing! I've always liked fantasy, but I really appreciate her modern language in the fantasy stories that she writes. I'll also warn you that many of her books include romance. I enjoy it all mixed together, but I know some people are particular about having the two separate. So far, I've read her Curse of Gods series, Walker Saga, NYC Mecca Series. 

I enjoyed this contemporary romance as a change from my usual fantasy books. The story tells about an orphan that is adopted into a rich family. It is a rough transition for her to fit in with the boys of the family that attend the same high school with her. 

This story starts with Juliette being locked in a tower. She is 17 years old and her touch is fatal. This is one of those stories where she has to decide to become a weapon or become a warrior.

The story is based in the desert with a female lead. Amani is a gifted gunslinger in a world of magical djinn. This is a Goodreads 2016 Choice Award book. 

I've read a couple of books by Holly Black and this one did not disappoint. It is more mature than her Magisterium series. In this story Jude lives in the High Court of Faerie even though she is human. She must learn to live here with some wicked fairies and create some tough alliances to save her family.

This was an enjoyable story and leaves you wanting to know what happens next. It is extremely detailed and the author does a great job of describing each character. This is another classic story of a forbidden love with magic and mystery intertwined in the story.